Recent Advances And Future Prospects Of Polymer Based Organic Solar Cell

Abstract

The world’s energy demand is expected to be increased by double within 40 years as the global population grows and rising living standards in developing countries place a burden on available energy supplies. Harnessing solar energy is one of the most promising ways to tackle today’s energy issues. Although the present dominant photovoltaic (PV) technology is based on inorganic materials, high material and manufacturing costs limit its wide acceptance. Intensive research has been conducted towards the development of low-cost PV technologies, of which organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are one of the promising options. Polymer based organic Solar cell (PSCs) are attractive owing to a number of advantageous features, including their thin-film architecture, low material consumption , their use of organic materials(which are abundant), their utilization of efficient solution processes and low manufacturing energy requirements. Other advantages include their light weight, mechanical flexibility, tunable material properties, high transparency, low material and manufacturing costs. Furthermore, they have a potential to be a major renewable energy source because of their suitability for high-throughput and large area production. In this article, we first give a brief overview of the basic mechanism of polymer-based solar cells, and the recent progress in the device performance based on the development of materials. Recent progress in the development of polymer solar cells has improved power-conversion efficiencies from 3% to almost 9%. This Review covers the scientific origins and basic properties of polymer solar cell technology, material requirements and also discusses major achievements in the field over the past few years. Rapid progress in the development of polymer tandem solar cells in recent years provides significant confidence in this promising technology due to their potential to achieve higher performance than single cells. Potential future developments and the applications of this technology are also briefly discussed.